“Descendant” (pp. 47-48)
“
We created something a little closer to perfection than ourselves; maybe that’s the only way to progress. Let them try to do the same. I doubt they can, so they will always be less as well as more than us. It’s all just a sum, a whispered piece of figuring lost in the empty blizzards of white noise howling through the universe, a brief oasis in an infinite desert, a freak bit of working out in which we have transcended ourselves, and they are only the remainder.
— Iain Banks
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We created something a little closer to perfection than ourselves; maybe that’s the only way to progress. Let them try to do the same. I doubt they can, so they will always be less as well as more than us. It’s all just a sum, a whispered piece of figuring lost in the empty blizzards of white noise howling through the universe, a brief oasis in an infinite desert, a freak bit of working out in which we have transcended ourselves, and they are only the remainder." in the context of "“Descendant” (pp. 47-48)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Iain Banks" (Quotes, Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991): All page numbers from the trade paperback edition published by Night Shade Books (ISBN 978-1-59780-074-7)
Only A Gift from the Culture, Descendant and State of the Art are set in the world of his Culture series
For details on the original publication of each story, see the Wikipedia page
All ellipses in the original stories )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Iain Banks
Iain Menzies Banks (February 16, 1954 – June 9, 2013), officially Iain Banks, was a Scottish writer. As Iain M. Banks he wrote science fiction; as Iain Banks he wrote literary fiction.
About Iain Banks
Iain Menzies Banks (February 16, 1954 – June 9, 2013), officially Iain Banks, was a Scottish writer. As Iain M. Banks he wrote science fiction; as Iain Banks he wrote literary fiction.
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